The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are heavily dependant on an expatriate health care workforce, especially physicians and nurses, according to a new report.

The rapidly growing populations and per capita incomes, rising life expectancies, a high incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, and medical infrastructure projects are driving health care industry growth in the the GCC, said Deloitte’s newly released report entitled, ‘2015 global health care outlook: Common goals, competing priorities.”

Even though the region is making appreciable progress in its efforts to improve health care access and quality, pressure on available capacity is increasing, and closing the wide gap between current and targeted states remains a top challenge this year, it said.

The new report examined the current state of the global health care sector; describes the top issues facing stakeholders; provides a snapshot of activity in a number of geographic markets; and suggests considerations for companies to meet the challenges this year and beyond.

Julian Hawkins, partner in charge for consulting at Deloitte Middle East, said: “GCC countries depend heavily on government funding to meet health care needs. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the government accounted for 65.8 per cent of health care spending in 2012, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).”

The report found that to address the increasing demand for healthcare, which includes Saudi Arabian nationals who are entitled to free health care, as well as religious pilgrims, the government’s 2014 budget allocated $28.8 billion to health and social welfare.

The funding included plans for 11 new hospitals, 11 medical centres and two medical complexes, on top of the 132 hospitals and health care centres already under construction.

However, after several years of large budgetary spending increases, the Saudi Arabian government is intensifying its efforts to promote private health care, via expanded health insurance, increased loan limits to build private hospitals, and support for public-private partnerships.

It also found that health care, education, and social services continue to be priorities in the UAE’s federal budget.

In terms of health care, UAE nationals were covered under the government-funded health care programme, while expatriates have to pay for private health care insurance.

Although, the UAE government is encouraging more private participation in the sector, it will likely continue to finance the bulk of health care spending in the near term.

“Unequal access to health care facilities and a continued shortage of health care professionals across the Middle East illustrate the region’s need for more private sector involvement to fill the gap between increasing needs and available capacity,” said Hawkins.

“Governments are responding to this imperative by introducing programs and incentives to encourage private sector growth, optimise current operations, and leverage technology to raise the quality of health care services in GCC countries,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service